This guide outlines the best career boost strategies when your path has been derailed or faces obstacles.
A career can be filled with ups and downs, but the tip to navigate the complex terrain is to stay the course. Sometimes, however, this becomes difficult, and before you know it, unexpected obstacles derail your career, leaving you with significant setbacks.
Fortunately, a career derailment is not the end of the road, and that is further proven by the 46% of employees looking to move on to the next big thing in a year. You can recover from a derailed career and thrive after taking the time to build resilience, skills, and strategize for career growth.
Top career boost strategies
This discussion explores some essential career recovery and growth steps.
Identify personal weaknesses and fix them
One effective way to identify your weaknesses is to embark on an introspection exercise. Honest self-reflection is an effective career boost activity that compels you to see where you may have fallen short and contributed to the career derailment.
This is the time for you to recognize gaps in your skill set, your work habits, and certain deficiencies in your interpersonal skills. Sometimes, your weakness is the lack of technical proficiency in a specific area that contributed to a career derailment. No matter what you finally identify to be your weaknesses, the most important thing is to take ownership and take active steps to address them.
It helps to rely on feedback from your colleagues, bosses, or HR to help you identify weak areas you never thought were a problem. Many times, it takes an external party to identify things you overlooked or ignored simply because you didn’t regard them as relevant.
Taking ownership of your weaknesses demonstrates a personal commitment to honest self-assessment and professional growth. When you do this, you will have a better chance to make better decisions regarding reviving your career.
Improve your skills
Did you know that a stagnant skill set can lead to a career derailment? Professional stagnation is real, and many people have learned that the hard way.
It doesn’t matter how sharp your skills were when you got the job ten years ago. Things have changed, and so has your job, making it prudent to learn a new skill set relevant to your field for a career boost.
Speaking of upskilling, how efficient are you with modern technology? The latter has become a significant tool in modern work, and without proficiency, you will likely be left behind in your mission to get back on track.
With that in mind, you can take proactive steps to enhance your skills while you get ready for the next big opportunity that comes your way.
For example, your career as a computer programmer can be revived when you learn the latest programming language being used in modern coding. Stay updated on current software used for that purpose and do all you can to learn the ins and out of modern computer language.
People who invest time and effort in upskilling tend to perform better in their new job roles or careers. You can do the same by using the downtime during the career derailment to learn more, boost your confidence, and build resilience for the next chapter of your life.
Embrace self and professional development
It can be difficult to put yourself together, especially after experiencing a career derailment. Admittedly, it is a natural reaction to such circumstances, but the difference between you and the next person lies in what you do to rise from the ashes.
The best decision to take in such moments is to prioritize your self and professional development. Explore more opportunities for further education and this can be through taking online courses relevant to your field. For instance, nursing courses will be beneficial if you are a healthcare employee looking to branch into other areas of the profession.
Aside from further education, engage in networking activities to broaden your professional horizon and get a career boost. Now is the time to explore various avenues that help you decide whether to make a career switch or stay in the old one and develop professionally. That is a personal decision you can take after weighing the options and assessing your strengths and hidden passions.
Identify the mistakes or errors leading to career derailment
Many people spend too much time being emotional about their careers going off-course. That can be time-wasting and unproductive because you could do better in understanding the root causes of the derailment.
First, reflect on the decisions, actions, and circumstances that led to the setback and think about how you could have done things differently for a career boost instead.
Sometimes, a lack of strategic planning, poor communication, and factors beyond your control contribute to a career derailment. External factors like redundancy or retrenchment are painful experiences that often cause a derailment in people’s careers.
You have more to do after pinpointing the errors or mistakes, and that includes developing a plan to mitigate such circumstances in the future. You can describe it as having a career derailment map that highlights all the errors and mistakes leading to professional failure. Doing this helps you adopt better practices and measures to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
Check your attitude
A positive attitude means everything to a working professional and is often considered an indispensable asset for a career boost. However, it’s concerning when a negative attitude contributes to a persistent career derailment.
It is recommended to maintain a positive attitude throughout your recovery period after your career gets derailed. Some people who failed to do this had their emotions spiral out of control, contributing to a decline in their mental health. Wallowing in self-pity is not the way to go, especially when there are several opportunities to capitalize on to redeem your image and confidence.
The best thing to do is to maintain a proactive and solution-oriented mindset as you work your way back to an active career. People with resilient attitudes can bounce back stronger and do exceedingly better when their career finally gets back on track. You will have an opportunity to demonstrate to colleagues and employers your will to overcome adversity and become the best at the game.
Final words
Recovering from a career derailment is possible, but only if you prioritize your self and professional needs to aim for a career boost.
